Ground Source Heat Pumps (GHSPs) is a relevant application and around 3 million installations are setting up at the beginning of 2010 (IEA ECES Annex 21). The improvements in GSHPs are currently focused on the optimization of the system and the reduction of costs installations. The thermal conductivity of the ground and thermal resistance of the Borehole Heat Exchanger (BHE) are important design parameters for Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) systems. The Thermal Response Test (TRT), which has been used up to now in the GHE design, only allows estimating mean values for thermal conductivity of the surrounding ground and borehole resistance. However, the ground thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance may present local variation along the borehole depth. For improving conventional TRT, the optical fiber technology is applied to collect information about the temperature profiles in the borehole. Thermal Response Test (TRT) logs the inlet and outlet fluid temperatures; meanwhile, the Distributed Thermal Response Test (DTRT) carries out a profile of the temperature along the borehole depth, in this case with fiber optic cables. This Master of Science Thesis focuses on the comparison and analysis of DTRT measurements in a U-pipe borehole in order to estimate the thermal conductivity and the borehole thermal resistance along the borehole. The comparison and the analysis are carried out by: •Comparing the differences of TRT results depending on the heat power rate considered – constant and by steps-. •Comparing the results from two different resolution Distributed Test Sensing (DTS) equipments: Halo and Sentinel DTS. •Comparing the differences of TRT results as depending on the analytical procedure based on the line source theory: line source model and line source approximation.

Solar Tower Power Plants with thermal energy storage are a promising technology for dispatchable renewable energy in the near future. Storage integration makes possible to shift the electricity production to more profitable peak hours. Usually two tanks are used to store cold and hot fluids, but this means both higher related investment costs and difficulties during the operation of the variable volume tanks. Another solution can be a single tank thermocline storage in a multi-layered configuration. In such tank both latent and sensible fillers are employed to decrease the related cost by up to 30% and maintain high efficiencies.  The Master thesis hereby presented describes the modelling and implementation of a thermocline-like multi-layered single tank storage in a STPP. The research work presents a comprehensive methodology to determine under which market structures such devices can outperform the more conventional two tank storage systems. As a first step the single tank is modelled by means of differential energy conservation equations. Secondly the tank geometrical design parameters and materials are taken accordingly with the applications taken into consideration. Both the steady state and dynamic models have been implemented in an existing techno-economic tool developed in KTH, in the CSP division (DYESOPT). The results show that under current cost estimates and technical limitations the multi-layered solid PCM storage concept is a better solution when peaking operating strategies are desired, as it is the case for the two-tier South African tariff scheme. In this case the IRR of an optimal designed power plant can be decreased by 2.1%. However, if a continuous operation is considered, the technology is not always preferred over the two tank solution, yet is a cheaper alternative with optimized power plants. As a result the obtained LCOE can be decreased by 2.4%.

This report is a thesis for BTH in collaboration with the company Saab Kockums AB. In order to meet future environmental and economical demands, a vessel must reduce its fuel consumption to have a smaller climate impact and save money. Waste heat recovery systems (WHRS) captures the thermal energy generated from a process that is not used but dumped into the environment and transfers it back to the system. Thermal energy storage (TES) is the method of storing thermal energy which allows heat to be used whenever necessary. Some applications of TES are seasonal storage, where summer heat is stored for use in the winter or when ice is produced during off-peak periods and used for cooling later. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilities of utilising a vessel’s waste heat by converting thermal energy into electrical energy. This thesis also aims to investigate conditions for SaltX Technology’s nano-coated salt as a potential solution for thermal energy storage. Initially, the expectations and requirements a future WHRS were investigated in a function analysis. Continuously, the method consisted of a combination of a literature review and dialogue with stakeholders. The literature review was used as a tool to identify, select and study concepts of interest built on scientifically proven facts. Dialogues with stake holders were held as a complement to the literature study to find information. The study showed that an organic Rankine cycle has the highest efficiency for low-medium temperature heat and is therefore most suitable to recover thermal energy from the cooling water. The concept of a steam Rankine cycle is most suitable for recovering thermal energy from the exhaust gases for direct use.The study obtained conditions and important properties for storing thermal energy in salt for later use. Finally, the result showed that a Stirling engine is the most efficient concept for conversion of stored energy into electrical energy. The conclusions are that there are great possibilities for waste heat recovery on marine defence platforms. A Stirling engine for energy conversion in combinations with thermal energy storage shows most promise as a future waste heat recovery system on this type of marine platform. / Denna rapport är ett examensarbete för BTH i samarbete med företaget Saab Kockums AB. Arbetet utforskar möjligheterna att möta framtida miljömässiga och ekonomiska krav genom att låta fartyg minska sin bränsleförbrukning. System för återvinning av spillvärme (WHRS) fångar upp värmeenergi som vanligtvis kyls ner eller släpps ut i naturen och för den tillbaka till systemet. Termisk energilagring (TES) är metoder för lagring av värme som gör det möjligt att använda termisk energi när det behövs. Vissa applikationer av TES är säsongslagring, där sommarvärme lagras för användning på vintern eller när is produceras under vintern och används för kylning senare. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka möjligheterna att utnyttja ett fartygs spillvärme genom att omvandla termisk energi till elektrisk energi. Detta examensarbete syftar också till att undersöka förhållandena för hur SaltX Technology’s nanobelagda salt kan användas som en potentiell lösning för lagring av termisk energi. Inledningsvis undersöktes WHRS:s förväntningar och krav i en funktionsanalys. Fortsättningsvis bestod metoden av en kombination av en litteraturstudie och dialoger med intressenter. Litteraturstudien användes som ett verktyg för att identifiera, välja och studera intressanta koncept baserade på vetenskapligt beprövade fakta. Dialoger hölls som ett komplement till litteraturstudien för att hitta information. Studien visade att en organisk Rankine-cykel har den högsta verkningsgraden för låg-medelhög temperatur och därför är bäst lämpad för att återvinna energi buren i kylvattnet samt att en ång-Rankine-cykel är bäst lämpad för att utnyttja energin från avgaserna för direkt användning. Studien erhöll förhållanden för termisk energilagring i salt samt viktiga parametrar för systemet. Slutligen visade resultatet att en Stirlingmotor är det mest effektiva konceptet för omvandling av lagrad energi till elektrisk energi. Slutsatserna är att det finns stora möjligheter för återvinning av restvärme på marina försvarsplattformar. En Stirlingmotor för energiomvandling i kombination med termisk energilagring visar störst potential som ett framtida system för återvinning av spillvärme på denna typen av plattformar.

Thermal energy storage (TES) in a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant allows for continuous operation even during times when solar radiation is not available, thus providing a reliable output to the grid. Energy can be stored either as sensible heat or latent heat, of which latent heat storage is advantageous due to its high volumetric energy density and the high Rankine cycle efficiency owing to the isothermal operation of latent thermal energy storage (LTES) system. Storing heat in the form of latent heat of fusion of a phase change material (PCM), in addition to sensible heat, significantly increases the energy density, thus potentially reducing the storage size and cost. However, a major technical barrier to the use of latent thermal energy of PCM is the high thermal resistance to energy transfer due to the intrinsically low thermal conductivity of PCMs, which is a particularly acute constraint during the energy discharge. Secondly, for integration of TES in CSP plants, it is imperative that the cyclic exergetic efficiency be high, among other requirements, to ensure that the energy extracted from the system is at the maximum possible temperature to achieve higher cycle conversion efficiency in the power block. The first objective is addressed through computational modeling and simulation to quantify the effectiveness of two different approaches to reduce the thermal resistance of PCM in a LTES, viz. (a) developing innovative, inexpensive and passive heat transfer devices that efficiently transfer large amount of energy between the PCM and heat transfer fluid (HTF) and (b) increase the heat transfer area of interaction between the HTF and PCM by incorporating the PCM mixture in small capsules using suitable encapsulation techniques.   The second portion of the research focuses on numerical modeling of large scale latent thermal storage systems integrated to a CSP plant with the aforementioned enhancement techniques and cascaded with more than one PCM to maximize the exergetic efficiency. Based on systematic parametric analysis on the various performance metrics of the two types of LTES, feasible operating regimes and design parameters are identified to meet the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative requirements including storage cost < $15/kWht and exergetic efficiency > 95%, for a minimum storage capacity of 14 h, in order to reduce subsidy-free levelized cost of electricity (LCE) of CSP plants from 21¢/kWh (2010 baseline) to 6¢/kWh, to be on par with the LCE associated with fossil fuel plants. / Ph. D.

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4th generation district heating (4GDH) and varying the indoor temperature to store heat are both important concepts that can make it easier to implement more renewable energy and reduce costs of heating. This study looks at these concepts from a customer perspective using one building and looking at how energy can be stored and the performance of 4GDH. Low temperature heat sources from industry, supermarkets, and datacentres are used in combination with heat from a combined heat and power plant to get the required heating. A heat pump has also been modelled as a part of the 4GDH structure. In addition to looking at heat storage in 4GDH a scenario with direct electric heating has also been evaluated. In conclusion 4GDH has lower operating costs than 3rd generation district heating, but it is not worth varying the indoor temperature to store energy when using 4GDH. It is, however, profitable to vary indoor temperature if direct electric heating is used.

In Canada 15% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are produced by the residential sector’s energy demand. The majority of the energy demand is space heating which is primarily met with natural gas combustion. Motivation exists to reduce GHG emissions due to their contribution to climate change. Integrated Community Energy Harvesting (ICE-Harvest) systems seek to integrate thermal and electrical energy production, storage, redistribution, and consumption in a way that reduces GHG emissions. Borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) is implemented in ICE-Harvest systems as seasonal thermal energy storage. This thesis presents a novel model of BTES thermal response with reduced complexity to aid in early siting, design, optimization, and control systems development work for ICE-Harvest systems. The reduced model can be used to approximate periodic steady state BTES thermal response. The model provides information on average ground storage volume temperature, outlet fluid temperature, heat exchanger fluid to storage volume heat transfer rate, storage volume top loss heat transfer rate, storage volume side and bottom loss heat transfer rate, and annual thermal energy storage efficiency which aids system modelling efforts for BTES in solar thermal and ICE-Harvest systems. The reduced model is formed from a solution of the thermal energy balance equations for the BTES ground storage volume and heat exchanger fluid with simplified operating conditions for a yearly BTES charging and discharging cycle. Ground storage volume temperature is lumped as a single value. Heat transfer rates between the storage volume and the heat exchanger fluid and the storage volume and its surroundings are modelled with periodic steady state thermal resistance values for the charging and discharging timesteps. A TRNSYS DST simulation of BTES is validated against measurements from a BTES installation and TRNSYS DST is used to generate the periodic steady state thermal resistance values the reduced model requires. The periodic steady state thermal resistance values of BTES charging and discharging are dependent on BTES design parameters (spacing between boreholes, number of boreholes, borehole depth, and storage volume size) and ground thermal properties (thermal capacity and thermal conductivity) which is presented in a series of parameter sweeps with respect to a reference simulation. The reduced model predicts periodic steady state average storage volume temperature with a RMSD of 0.96°C for charging and 1.3°C for discharging when compared to the TRNSYS DST reference simulation. The reduced model predicts the periodic steady state heat exchanger total energy transfer within 1.8% for the charging timestep and 2.8% for the discharging timestep when compared to the TRNSYS DST reference simulation. The reduced model’s periodic steady state thermal resistance values are demonstrated to be independent of heat exchanger fluid inlet temperature except for the side and bottom loss thermal resistance during discharging. The reduced model cannot replicate the change in heat transfer direction that occurs during BTES discharging when the temperature of the storage volume decreases below the temperature of the surrounding ground, however, the magnitude of the energy transfer that would occur is negligible compared to the magnitude of the BTES heat exchanger total energy transfer. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Future defense, aerospace and automotive technologies involve electronic systems that release high pulsed waste heat like during high power microwave and laser diode applications in tactical and combat aircraft, and electrical and electronic systems in hybrid electric vehicles, which will require the development of an efficient thermal management system. A key design issue is the need for fast charging so as not to overheat the key components. The goal of this work is to study the fabrication and technology implementation feasibility of a novel high energy storage, high heat flux passive heat sink. Key focus is to verify by theory and experiments, the practicability of using phase change materials as a temporary storage of waste heat for heat sink applications. The reason for storing the high heat fluxes temporarily is to be able to reject the heat at the average level when the heat source is off. Accordingly, a concept of a dual latent heat sink intended for moderate to low thermal duty cycle electronic heat sink applications is presented. This heat sink design combines the features of a vapor chamber with rapid thermal energy storage employing graphite foam inside the heat storage facility along with phase change materials and is attractive owing to its passive operation unlike some of the current thermal management techniques for cooling of electronics employing forced air circulation or external heat exchangers. In addition to the concept, end-application dependent criteria to select an optimized design for this dual latent heat sink are presented. A thermal resistance concept based design tool/model has been developed to analyze and optimize the design for experiments. The model showed that it is possible to have a dual latent heat sink design capable of handling 7 MJ of thermal load at a heat flux of 500 W/cm2 (over an area of 100 cm2) with a volume of 0.072 m3 and weighing about 57.5 kg. It was also found that with such high heat flux absorption capability, the proposed conceptual design could have a vapor-to-condenser temperature difference of less than 10 0C with a volume storage density of 97 MJ/m3 and a mass storage density of 0.122 MJ/kg. The effectiveness of this heat sink depends on the rapidness of the heat storage facility in the design during the pulse heat generation period of the duty cycle. Heat storage in this heat sink involves transient simultaneous laminar film condensation of vapor and melting of an encapsulated phase change material in graphite foam. Therefore, this conjugate heat transfer problem including the wall inertia effect is numerically analyzed and the effectiveness of the heat storage mechanism of the heat sink is verified. An effective heat capacity formulation is employed for modeling the phase change problem and is solved using finite element method. The results of the developed model showed that the concept is effective in preventing undue temperature rise of the heat source. Experiments are performed to investigate the fabrication and implementation feasibility and heat transfer performance for validating the objectives of the design i.e., to show that the VCTES heat sink is practicable and using PCM helps in arresting the vapor temperature rise in the heat sink. For this purpose, a prototype version of the VCTES heat sink is fabricated and tested for thermal performance. The volume foot-print of the vapor chamber is about 6"X5"X2.5". A custom fabricated thermal energy storage setup is incorporated inside this vapor chamber. A heat flux of 40 W/cm2 is applied at the source as a pulse and convection cooling is used on the condenser surface. Experiments are done with and without using PCM in the thermal energy storage setup. It is found that using PCM as a second latent system in the setup helps in lowering the undue temperature rise of the heat sink system. It is also found that the thermal resistance between the vapor chamber and the thermal energy storage setup, the pool boiling resistance at the heat source in the vapor chamber, the condenser resistance during heat discharging were key parameters that affect the thermal performance. Some suggestions for future improvements in the design to ease its implementation and enhance the heat transfer of this novel heat sink are also presented.

Nowadays the environmental sustainability and the limitation of the energy consumption of buildings is of substantial importance in order to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and mitigate the consequences of climate change. Thermal energy storage (TES) allows to store thermal energy when available in order to use it when and where necessary. The use of insulating materials with TES capability may results in the compensation of energy absorption peaks caused by air conditioning or by space heating with a consequent reduction of energy consumption and related CO2 emissions. This work aims at the development and characterization of composite materials based on polymeric foams and containing a phase change material providing the TES capability. The production procedures were optimized in order to maximize the quality of the samples and the main properties of the resulting materials were then investigated. Different matrices were considered in this work: thermosetting, thermoplastic and elastomeric ones. As thermosetting matrix, a polyurethane foam was considered: this foam was filled, during the production process, with increasing amounts (from 10 to 40 wt%) of a microencapsulated PCM with a melting point of 24 °C. The addition of the PCM caused the disruption of the regular close cell morphology of the foams with a consequent increase of the thermal conductivity and a reduction of the mechanical properties. On the other hand, the addition of the PCM led to interesting TES properties, measured both through differential scanning calorimetry and infrared thermography (up to 54 J/g). Polyethylene was chosen as thermoplastic matrix and the technology of salt leaching was used to obtain foams without the use of chemical foaming agents. Foams containing different amounts (up to 56 wt%) of a microencapsulated PCM with a melting point of 24 °C were prepared. The addition of the PCM led to a decrease of the connectivity and porosity values of the prepared foams with a consequent decrease of the mechanical properties and increase of the thermal conductivity. Despite the rupture of a certain part of the PCM capsules due to the production process, good TES properties (up to 50 J/g) were measured. Elastomeric foams were prepared using an EPDM rubber as matrix and different foaming agents for the expansion process: foams obtained using two different commercial foaming agents were compared with foams obtained using the salt leaching technique. In the first case, a shape-stabilized PCM was added during the production process, while in the second one the foams were impregnated with a liquid PCM without the necessity of a shape stabilization. Salt leaching foams were able to retain higher PCM loads with respect to foams produced using commercial foaming agents and were therefore characterized by higher TES capability (up to 129 J/g). Infrared thermography tests highlighted that the time required to reach a reference temperature during heating/cooling cycles was three times longer for samples with a PCM amount of about 55 wt%. These foams evidenced a general decrease of the mechanical properties upon PCM addition. Moreover, a strong influence of the temperature on the mechanical behaviour of these foams was highlighted, with the PCM acting as softener above its melting point and as hardener below. In order to consider practical applications, elastomeric panels made of an ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber filled with a shape stabilized PCM and covered with a nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) envelope were prepared. It was possible to verify the absence of leakage, the uniform distribution of the PCM and the influence of temperature on the mechanical properties of the samples. From rheological tests it was also possible to observe the plasticizing effect of the PCM that hindered the vulcanization process of the EPDM/PCM compound. In the second part of this work larger samples were prepared and used for the internal insulation of wood boxes that were subjected to heating/cooling cycles, simulating thus real summer conditions in north Italy. The beneficial effect of the PCM resulted in a consistent reduction of the temperature peak with respect to a reference box insulated with elastomeric panels without PCM. Moreover, the fire behaviour of the produced samples was studied and the effect of the addition of different flame retardants was deeply investigated. The addition of a flame retardant based on ammonium polyphosphate and aluminium diethyl phosphinate as synergistic agents allowed a strong reduction of the peak of heat release rate measured through cone calorimeter tests, with a significant improvement of the fire behaviour. Fire tests allowed also to point out the significant role, in improving the fire performances of the samples, of the interactions between ammonium polyphosphate and the mineral fillers present in the EPDM/PCM compound (clay) and in the envelope (talc, kaolin and silica). A better comprehension of the combustion mechanisms and of the flame retardant efficacy was achieved through the analysis of the combustion residues. Finally, the specific enthalpy of the different systems was evaluated with respect to the cost of the raw materials used in the production stages in order to classify them on the basis of their melting enthalpy and on the economical aspects.